Passivity of Rip Van Winkle
In life you encounter many different kinds of people. Some people worry about everything, are always in a rush, and it seems they don’t enjoy life. Others seem to take a more passive approach to living, and seem to seldom worry about what is going on around them and are content to just be happy with their life. Rip Van Winkle is a character that seems to show no concern for anything. He is happy to just let life happen.
Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” is a short story of a man who falls asleep and wakes up twenty years later. Although the reader will find Rip’s actions to be very careless about his own life, one will also see that Rip enjoys helping other people instead of being concerned about himself and the responsibilities he has. The dictionary defines being passive as one that does not react to something that might be expected to produce an emotion or feeling. His wife, Dame Van Winkle, often verbally nagged Rip Van Winkle due to his lack of motivation to help around the house and on the farm.
To fully understand the significance of the story one must decide on why they believe Rip Van Winkle went up into the mountains. Was he trying to escape his wife? Was he trying to dodge his responsibilities of life all together? Or was he simply being Rip and out for a carefree hike in the mountains? Many believe that Rip spent most of his life trying to avoid his wife’s nagging; however, Rip really was just out to live his life and be happy. It is likely that it was a combination of all three on why he went to the mountains. He liked being able to do what he wanted and enjoy the peace and quiet from his wife and not have to think about the day-to-day responsibilities of life.
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...nce everyone of who he actually is, but also to convince himself that he is not going crazy.
Rip Van Winkle is happy to just let life happen. As the reader reads Rip Van Winkle, he or she will see how Rip spends his life in a very carefree manner. He does not have any concern for the responsibilities of being a husband, father, or provider. Some people take this approach to life, however we see it does not always work out well in the end. Rip spent his life living for the moment, but in the end found he had missed out on many important events in life. By living with a passive attitude life may seem easier until you realize that you are all alone. Even though Rip was able to get rid of his wife by going up on the mountain and sleeping for 20 years, the shock of waking up and going to the village to find that no one knew who he was struck him even worse.
In Soft Spots: A Marine’s Memoir of Combat and Post-traumatic stress disorder, Sargent Clint Van Winkle participated in one of the bloodiest wars in Iraq. Sargent Winkle signed up to protect his country, without truly understanding the reason for the war. He did not know what to expect, what was going to happen, exactly who it was going to happen to, but courageously he was out there waiting on an answer that in fact was never revealed. However, Winkle was a part of that war, which made him agree with the terms that led. He was trained to follow orders, forced to survive, and made a pact to protect the guy to right and to the left of him. Despite being diagnosed with PTSD and the uncertainties of whether the war was worthy or not, he favored
He goes out of his way and changes his Life for a man he just met a couple of days ago. In the article “The Really Big Sleep: Jeffrey Lebowski as the Second Coming of Rip Van Winkle” says how “In Irving's story Rip is introduced as ‘one of those happy mortals of foolish well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy’ (451). For the Dude these are words to liveby” (Ashe 48). This quote is regarding to how the dude is a very happy man and has no stress in the world for he is unemployed and bowls all day for a living. Most will say that he is lazy and has no life while Lebowski actually has a job for living, but the dude doesn’t care. He is very
After reading the story of Rip Van Wrinkle, the first expression I received as a message was change, and regardless of how one reacts or view circumstances, evolution will continue its natural process. In addition, when I considered how the author’s illustration of Rip Van Wrinkle need to find refuge in the time of (distress) his wife’s overwhelming nagging, I noticed how Wrinkles’ neglected to take charge of his empire; his home, children and wife, therefore, he did not confront his personal challenges to ease or eliminated his stress, instead, he walked away from his wife’s overwhelming nagging. In turn, another message the reading audience may convey is that, in order to witness radical change, sometimes interest and or participation is
Rip is viewed in the town as a person who helped everyone with anything, except his own family- “…he was a simple ...
...ture of King George in “Rip Van Winkle.” Rip returns to his village twenty years after he left and realizes that someone has transformed the King into George Washington (541). Irving, realizing that much of life is merely a refashioning of the same ideas and structures into something that looks new, has taken an old German folk tale and turned it into a story of American life. We may live in a time with vastly different resources, technologies, and opportunities, but the urges that drive us are still the same.
In “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving he writes about a simple man, Rip Van Winkle, who does just enough to get by in life. He lives in a village by the catskill mountains, and is loved by everyone in the village. He is an easy going man, who spends most of his days at the village inn talking with his neighbors, fishing all day, and wandering the mountains with his dog to refuge from his wife the thorn on his side. On one of his trips to the mountains Rip Van Winkle stumbles upon a group of men who offer him a drink, and that drink changes everything for Van Winkle. He later wakes up, twenty years later, and returns to his village were he notices nothing is the same from when he left. He learns that King George III is no longer in charge,
Protagonist Rip Van Winkle possesses mystical and entertaining characteristics that captivate the reader. Rip Van Winkle regards all of his neighbors with kindness continuously. He shows the depth of American values such as kindness and the love of the neighbor. Van Winkle’s great kindness is illustrated by his helping of others. On page 62, the narrator states “He inherited, however, but little of the martial character of his ancestors. I have observed that he was a simple, good-natured man; he was moreover a kind neighbor, and an obedient, henpecked husband,” confirming that Van Winkle is a kind person and a loving
The story of Rip van Winkle is a popular folktale of the United States. Its general motif is the magical passing of many years in what seems only a few days. Japan’s popular version of this story is Urashima Taro. In addition to the common motif, the personality of the main characters, Rip van Winkle and Urashima Taro, and plot structures are similar as well.
In RIP Van Winkle, Dam Van Winkle is abusive, nagging, and sarcastic. In Rip Van Winkle, Washington Irving states that “but what courage can with stand the ever-during and all besetting terrors of a woman’s tongue.” He seems to imply that he did not like women who gave their opinions and spoke their mind. It seems that Rip is going into the woods to escape his wife.
In Rip Van Winkle, Irving shows his doubts in the American Identity and the American dream. After the Revolutionary war, America was trying to develop its own course. They were free to govern their own course of development; however, some of them had an air of uncertainties on their own identity in this new country. Irving was born among this generation in the newly created United States of America, and also felt uncertainty about the American identity. Irving might be the writer that is the least positive about being an American. The main reason for this uncertainty is the new born American has no history and tradition while the Europe has a great one accumulated for thousands of years. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, Irving borrows an old European tale to make it take place in America. This tale related to the Dutch colonists haunts the kaatskill mountains. In order to highlight the American identity, Irving praises the “majestic” mountains which Europe lacks. He describes the mountains that “their summits…will glow and light up like a crown of glory” Nevertheless, the use of these ancient explorers into Rip Van Winkle only to show that although American has formed its own identity, no one can cut its connection with Europe. No wonder when America was still under tyranny of the British rule, some people still cannot cut the blood relationship with Europe. Therefore, the American identity is blurred by their relationship with Europe since then.
One particular criterion character effectively supports the central idea in “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving. The character's type develops with the personality development throughout the story. Three types of characters: round, flat, and stock, appear in most stories. The round character displays a fully developed personality and full emotions. Flat characters, also known as supporting characters, do not develop fully or express complex emotions. A stock character, also known as a stereotype, fits an established characterization from real life or literature. With these three types of characters leading the reader through the story, the reader learns the events taking place as well as the changes in the character’s lives. The author keeps the reader informed of the changes affecting the characters throughout the narrative through style. When a character undergoes a fundamental change in nature or personality during the story, the character has dynamic style. However, a character without change defines a static character. Although all characters have a style and type sometimes understanding the differences appears complicated. A chart often helps establish a better understanding of character type and style.
Have you ever imagined being asleep in the forest for twenty years, coming back home and not knowing what has gone on all those years of your absence? Rip Van Winkle went through that, and had to come back home and face some real changes. The author Washington Irving has some interesting characters whom he puts in his short stories. Irving puts some characters in his short stories to reflect on some of his life. For example, Irving has similarities between Rip Van Winkle being asleep in the forest 20 years and Irving was in Europe for seventeen writing short stories and being the governor’s aid and military secretary. These two situations are similar, because they both didn’t know what they were going to come back too and were gone for such a long period of time. Irving does put some of his own life into his short stories and with a reason for his self-reflective works.
Rip Van Winkle was a man who traveled to the mountain to escape his nagging wife. Along his journey he encounters a few travelers and ends up drinking with them. He falls asleep on the mountain and wakes up twenty years later without realizing how much time has passed. When he wakes
Washington Irving's, "Rip Van Winkle" presented a tale of a "dreamer." Rip Van Winkle was a family man
Rip Van Winkle tells the story of a man who, on a trek into the Kaatskill mountains, mysteriously sleeps away twenty years of his life during the Revolutionary War. When he returns home, he finds that things have dramatically changed; King George no longer has control over the colonies, and many of his friends have either died or left town. At this point, the story reaches its climax, where Van Winkle realizes that his life may be forever changed.